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drones being evicted

My top bar hive has gotten pretty crowded and this weekend the workers were kicking out drones left and right. Is that normal for this time of the year in North Carolina?

Also, the drones all just crawled around on the ground and eventually died. They appeared to be healthy but none of them could fly. Is it possible that they were just old? If there was some kind of disease or mites I wouldn't think it would be limited to just drones.

Re: drones being evicted

Mine were killed off a week or so ago. When I first when to the hive I thought there was robbing but under second inspection they were dragging out the drones. Later in the day I checked in the window and the entire bottom of the hive was covered in dead drones. By the next day they had cleaned them out. There are still some drones though, not sure how they decide who lives and who dies.

Re: drones being evicted

I had early crowding and several hundred drones were driven out in June. No disease factor at all, they just can't feed themselves and might have been starving so no energy to fly prior to dying.I read workers sting them to death too,hence no flying and a big pile right outside the hive. It's not just or always seasonal;workers evict if they need space or food is low,I think,also. Mine hive proceeded to swarm two weeks After my June drove eviction so they were still too crowded. Unusual early dearth and hot weather contributed to drone-eviction conditions here(and especially me not being prepared to do a split when one was sorely needed to keep my bees at home!). HB

Re: drones being evicted

Thanks for your help. Today I noticed that there were numberous dead larvae around the hive that the bees had thrown out. My first thought was it was some kind of disease/parasite thing going on. After some researching I read that when the drones are evicted the workers often throw out the drone larvae as well. Just thought I'd pass that on.

Re: drones being evicted

I did an inspection of my 7 tbhs last Thursday. I was talking to my son that evening about the inspection when it hit me...I didn't remember seeing any drones or drone brood in the hives. This concerns me though, as one hive is apparently queenless or has a failing queen, and there were two capped queen cells. Without drones, how will the new queen get mated? I am assuming also that if the drones have been evicted in my hives, they were probably evicted from hives throughout the area. Need I be concerned?

Re: drones being evicted

Shannon, same hive. She laid on two bars, which are now capped brood, and the queen cells are on these these combs. I didn't see the queen, nor did I see any other eggs or brood in the hive, so I don't know what happened. Luckily, they did prep two queen cells in time. Hopefully, one will make it and get them going before fall.